How do marine litter and plastics travel long distances into and out of Arctic waters? Our Protection of the Arctic Marin Environment (PAME) Working Group aimed to find out with "Plastic in a Bottle". The capsule containing a GPS transmitter was tossed into the sea off Iceland in September 2019. Now, it has made landfall on the Isle of Tiree, Scotland. Learn more about the capsule's 207 days long journey.

 

In October 2019, the Belfer Center’s Arctic Initiative and the Wilson Center’s Polar Institute co-hosted a workshop on Policy and Action on Plastic in the Arctic Ocean with the Icelandic Chairmanship of the Arctic Council. The input from the workshop has now been released in a summary report and a set of recommendations. Find out how these will feed into the Council’s Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter in the Arctic.

 

The Council's Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response Working Group (EPPR) launched a Guideline for Arctic Marine Risk Assessment in April. The web based tool for conducting Arctic marine risk assessments contains best practice methods and important data sources. Find out how the tool will improve and ease the process of conducting Arctic-specific risk assessments.

 

During the last week of April, the Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response Working Group (EPPR) hosted two webinars for Arctic marine experts and the interested public: on EPPR's Circumpolar Oil Spill Response Viability Analysis  and the newly launched Guideline for Arctic Marine Risk Assessment. Learn more about the webinars.
 

 

The Circumpolar Oil Spill Response Viability Analysis (COSRVA) is intended to provide more science-based decision-making in Arctic oil spill response contingency planning. An objective of the second phase was to develop a web based GIS tool, that enables the users to work online directly via computer, tablet or smartphone.  Learn more about the project.

 

We’re excited to join Instagram to show you what our work looks like in this stunning, unique and lively region of the world. Follow us for an insight view to the Arctic Council, the Arctic States, Permanent Participants, Working Groups - and the Arctic itself. Take a first look here.

 

Project APP4SEA, "Arctic preparedness platform" held a Twitter conference on 16 April 2020 on challenges in Arctic oil spill response - and two Arctic Council Working Groups participated: EPPR's Chair Jens Peter Holst-Andersen gave a presentation on the EPPR project Circumpolar Oil Spill Response Viability Analysis COSRVA, while the PAME Secretariat presented one of its biggest projects: the database on Arctic shipping activities - ASTD.

Take a look at EPPR's and PAME's ten keynote tweets for quick insights into the Circumpolar Oil Spill Response Viability Analysis and Arctic Ship Traffic Data.
 

At any given time, the Council's Working and Expert Groups are engaged in close to 100 projects and initiatives. We put together this simple quiz to help guide you through Arctic Council reports and find science-based answers to your questions about many different Arctic issues. Find out what Arctic Council report you should add to your reading list by taking this quiz.